The development of an evidence-informed Convergent Care Theory: Working together to achieve optimal health outcomes

BACKGROUND: Healthcare is a complex and divergent system with uncertainty, unpredictability, and multi-layered stakeholders. The relationships among the stakeholders are multifaceted and dynamic, requiring continual interpersonal connections, networks, and co-evolution. It is pivotal to have an evidence-informed theory to explain the phenomenon, uniting the multifaceted stakeholders’ efforts. PURPOSE: To describe the development of an evidence-informed theory, the Convergent Care Theory, assembling healthcare stakeholders to work together and achieve optimal health outcomes. METHODS: The Convergent Care Theory was developed using a theory synthesis approach based on empirical research and literature reviews published by the theory-proposing author. The empirical evidence was categorized into: patients and families, healthcare providers, healthcare organizations, and patients’ and healthcare providers’ self-care. RESULTS: The Convergent Care Theory includes four concepts: all-inclusive organizational care, healthcare professional collaborative care, person-centered precision care, and patients’and healthcare providers’ self-care. Achieving convergent care is a process requiring all stakeholders to work together. Six major facilitators emerged from the research evidence: competence, compassion, accountability, trusting, sharing, and engaging. CONCLUSION: This article introduced the development process of the evidence-informed Convergent Care Theory. Healthcare systems are complex, with multiple stakeholders’ needs to meet. The Convergent Care Theory strives to unite healthcare stakeholders, bond resources, and join forces to achieve optimal healthcare outcomes. The underpinning of the theory is a caring culture, which is an underlying code for organizational and team behaviors and the foundation of optimal health outcomes.